The aim of ACT is to make sure that all learners are taken on as full time employees following their training.
Andrew Cooksley, Managing Director, of ACT Training, said: “Future Skills Wales gives a good indication of what generic skills employers need in the workforce. It allows us to feel confident that we are making the right decisions about the skills we help students to develop through our training.
“We have designed new workshops to address the skills needs revealed by the survey to prepare students for the workplace. Since adopting this system our evaluation has revealed that the number of people who get a long-term job as a consequence of their ACT work placement has increased.
“The Future Skills Wales Survey has contributed to a 16% increase in the number of people finding employment by giving us more accurate information about what employers want. We can advise our students more clearly about the work they will be expected to do and the skills they will need.
“ACT’s relationship with both learners and employers is strengthening, with more companies than ever choosing to return to us as a source for trainees. Learners, who seem to instinctively know when they are getting good training, are also coming to us from the Careers Services and through referrals from friends.
“Before this information was available, finding out exactly what employers needed was an extremely difficult exercise. We would speak to as many companies as we could, but you could never be sure that the skills they wanted were the same as companies in other sectors.
“Now with training providers included in the partnership for FSW 2003, the co-ordinated approach is paying dividends. We can reap the benefits that come from a wide range of companies being consulted, far more than we could do on our own as a training provider.”
